DOD says 14 'high-value' Guantanamo detainees are 'enemy combatants'

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] said Thursday that 14 "high-value" detainees have been designated as enemy combatants [press release] based on the recommendations of Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) [DOD materials]. The detainees, including the alleged masterminds of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, and the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, were all previously formerly held in secret prisons [JURIST report] operated by the Central Intelligence Agency and are currently held in detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. Detainees held as "enemy combatants" will be held indefinitely until they are charged before military commissions under the Military Commission Act of 2006 (MCA) [PDF text] or are transferred to another location.

Military prosecutors are currently appealing the dismissal of charges against Guantanamo detainees Omar Ahmed Khadr and Salim Ahmed Hamdan [JURIST reports]. The judges in both cases found that the detainees could not be tried as "unlawful enemy combatants" under the MCA because both had been simply designated as "enemy combatants" by the CSRTs. AP has more.

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